The present disclosure relates to a refrigerator.
Refrigerators are electric appliances for storing food at a low temperature in a storage space closed by a refrigerator door. The storage space is cooled using cold air generated through heat exchange with refrigerant circulating through a refrigeration cycle, thereby optimally storing food.
Along with the change of people's eating patterns and preference, large and multifunctional refrigerators have been introduced, and various comfortable structures have been added to refrigerators.
In general, a temperature difference between the inside and outside of a refrigerator ranges from about 20° C. to about 40° C. In this case, the inside of the refrigerator, which is lower in temperature than the outside thereof, is lower in pressure than the outside thereof, and thus, opening of the refrigerator door may be difficult. Moreover, opening of the refrigerator door may be more difficult due to attraction of a magnet provided on a gasket disposed between the refrigerator door and a cabinet providing the storage space.
To address this issue, outer air may be introduced into the refrigerator through a passage disposed in the refrigerator for discharging defrosted water from an evaporator, thereby removing a pressure difference between the inside and outside of the refrigerator.
Such configurations are disclosed in Korean Patent Publication Nos. 10-1999-0048798, 10-2006-0128590, and 10-2009-0130526.
However, in this case, the defrosted water discharge passage is used as the passage for connecting the inside and outside of the refrigerator. Thus, unless the refrigerator includes a structure for discharging defrosted water from the evaporator through a defrosting operation, it may be difficult to remove the pressure difference between the inside and outside of the refrigerator.
In particular, it may be difficult to apply a pressure difference removing structure to a direct cooling-type refrigerator that does not defrost the evaporator. Thus, opening of the refrigerator door may be difficult due to the pressure difference.
Furthermore, the pressure difference removing structure is disposed in a machinery room or a refrigerator main body, and thus, assembling thereof is complicated and a repair service is difficult.